Escape from the Witch Hunters

Ryia looked at him with wide eyes. “I don’t remember what happened.” she covered her face with her hands. “Maybe I am a witch. Maybe I do kill people. Maybe I am evil.” she looked up at Gillian with wild eyes. “I should turn myself in if I am that evil.”

“Ryia.” Gillian tried to stop her.

“I probably am a witch,” she backed away from Gillian, “Maybe I’ve used my powers on you. Maybe you’ll die because you’ve taken care of me. Maybe your house has a curse on it. I should go, I need to go.” she turned to grab her things.

“Ryia!” he grabbed her wrist and whirled her around.

He held her face in his hands, forcing her to look at him. “Listen. I don’t know what happened. But you are not a witch! You’re a child of the Great Father. You are amazing. You can’t think so badly of yourself.”

She looked up at him, and for a minute it looked as if she were reconsidering.

“No Gillian, don’t try to stop me. I’m going to turn myself in.” she turned away from him.

“No, you’re not.” he wrapped his arm around her small body and dragged her to a chair where he tied her up with a rope. “You are staying right here. I’m going to go get us something to eat. And don’t move an inch.”

He took his hunting materials and took off.

Ryia furrowed her eyebrows and sigh. Then she sniffed. She looked back at the fire to see the bacon of that morning to burning. If only her hands weren’t tied to the chair, then she could take it off of the fire.

Just then the door burst open, revealing two strange men dark clothing. “Ah-hah.” the men looked at each other before nodding.

“Who are you?” she stared at them.

“We are from the village of Castile. I’m surprised you don’t remember us Evelyn.” they tisked. “We remember when you were just a tiny girl.”

They both shrugged. “No matter. We’ll still take you back even if you don’t remember who you are. There are many people who know what you look like and can testify that you are in fact, Evelyn Moore.”

Ryia’s eyes widened. She wished Gillian were here. Why wasn’t he here? “Gillian!” she screamed quickly.

The men tried to cover her mouth. “Now now, you shouldn’t go shouting for him. He can’t come save you. No one can save you now.”

“What did you do to him?” Ryia yelled frantically and jerked the chair back.

“We just momentarily incapacitated him.” they shrugged it off. “He’ll be should be fine.”

“Should be?” she shouted. “What if he isn’t? What if he’s out there dying? You monsters!” she tried to kick them even though her leg protested in pain.

They backed up a bit. “No need to get upset, Evelyn-”

“No need to get upset? Here you are, uninvited, hurting, maybe even killing, Gillian, telling me to go with you so you can kill me, and you’re telling me to not get upset? What is wrong with you people!” she screamed. “What if he is really hurt? You would be murderers!”

They both chuckled. “You shouldn’t be talking to us about murdering people. And we didn’t even get his heart. We missed an only got his leg.”

Ryia looked horrified. “How could you!” she whispered savagely.

They grinned a bit to themselves. “Do I smell puppy love?” they snickered. “Anyway, you’re coming with us.”

They walked over to her to untie the knots but before they could, Ryia kicked them as hard as she could where it would hurt.

The first one growled as the second fell to the floor. “Look Evelyn, we are trying to be nice. Either you come willingly, or else we will go see if we can find Gillian and maybe cause him a bit more pain than necessary. It’s up to you.”

Ryia sent her most intimidating glare at them. “How do you know I won’t cast a spell on you and kill you?”

The first had a smug look on his face. “Because you know that if you do, we’ll just go to Gillian and finish him off.”

“What if I killed you both first?” she tried to keep up her act and not let her emotions show.

“We’ll just knock you out first. Everybody knows that witches can’t do anything when they aren’t conscious.” he smiled happily.

Father help me. Please. And keep Gillian safe. She glared daggers into them. “Fine. I’ll go. Just don’t hurt Gillian.”

“Good.” the second stood up and the first grinned. “A wise choice, Evelyn.”

They started untying the ropes that attached her to the wooden chair. “Come along now.”

Ryia quickly tugged the ring off of her finger and held it between the folds of the trouser.

Once they were down the steps of the house and onto the packed dirt, she gently dropped the ring on the ground, praying that Gillian would see it.

Gillian lay on the forest floor in agony. His leg was bleeding, he had gotten the knife out of it, but if he didn’t stop the bleeding, he would be a gonner.

Speckles of black entered his vision and he struggled to keep from passing out. The pain was almost unbarable.

Toughen up! You have to go help Ryia. he took a deep breath. Get up! he struggled to get his shirt off and tore it into pieces before tying his bleeding leg up. He flopped back onto the ground for a minute to catch his breath.

“Get up! They won’t hesitate to kill her!” he tried to goad himself and stood up as fuzzy specks blurred his vision. He shook his head, willing the dizziness to leave him. Please Great Father. Just this once, give me enough strength to get home.

He took a deep breath before limping back to the path that led to his house. He had to get there before the men did.

His house came into view and a sinking feeling came over him. The door was open.

And he had let Ryia defenseless, tied to a chair, with nothing to defend herself with. He would have bashed himself on his head if he had the strength. My leg is causing me enough pain, and I need my head to think.

He walked through his gate and down the path.

He was about to walk up the steps when a something on the path caught his eyes. He bent down and picked up a silver ring. Ryia’s silver ring. He shoved it in his pocket and hurried up the steps.

The ropes were twisted in a heap on the floor, her material still on the bed, and, he sniffed, bacon burning in the fry pan. She hadn’t gone willingly. Had she? She would never let food burn. She would never leave her ring on the ground. No, he decided, she was forced to go. She had to have been forced. He had to get her.

He sat down on the chair for a minute. It wouldn’t do to go try to break her free and get capture himself. Especially with his wounded leg. He would have to be smarter than that.

He placed his head in his hands. He had to think of something. It would take them a day to get to Castile. They would probably hold an unfair trial. She would be pronounced guilty. Then they would feed her her last meal. And then kill her.

He had three, four, days tops.

Then a wild idea came to him…

It just might work...he almost smiled to himself, it just might work.

He got up and grabbed his bag of medicine from under his bed, grabbed a salve and started to dress his leg.

“My leg is hurting me. Please can’t we slow down?” she pleaded.

She found out that the first man’s name was Hobb, and the second man’s name was Goss. They were brothers, and their last name was Gosslehobb.

Hobb was the smarter of the two, and Goss was the stronger. Together they made a brilliant team...without being brilliant.

Hobb sighed. “Help her onto the horse Goss.” he hopped off and Goss helped her on. “It wouldn’t do to have her half dead by the time we get there.”

Goss shrugged and led the horse along the path.

“When will we get there?” she rearranged her seating so she was straddling the horse.

“It’ll be after dark when we get there.” Hobb shrugged.

“Did I really kill all of those people?” she asked timidly.

“Well,” Goss turned back to look at her, “the illness did, but you and your mother didn’t stop it.”

Ryia frowned. That all sounded vaguely familiar...as if she remembered it from a dream.